Original source code for Prince of Persia posted to Github

Before Ubisoft, there was Jordan Mechner, a Yale University graduate and video game designer. He may not be a household name among younger Apple fans, but vintage Apple aficionados fondly remember his first title, Prince of Persia. The story about this game took an interesting twist recently when the source code for the title, presumed to be lost, was found by Mechner's father.

The classic game was published by Brøderbund for the Apple II back in 1989 and became an instant hit. Variations of the game eventually made its way to almost every video game platform thanks to Ubisoft which joined forces with Mechner in the early 2000s. During this transitional time from indie title to video game stardom, Mechner stored the original Prince of Persia disks and forget where he put them.

According to Mechner's blog post, his father was spring cleaning and found a box of odds and ends that he sent to his son. Mechner was shocked to discover the original 3.5″ Apple ProDOS disks containing the Prince of Persia source code in that box. With the help of digital archivist Jason Scott, Mechner was able to retrieve the code and view it on his Macbook. He has now shared it on Github for the world to see.